College
principal, professor,
vice-chancellor, UPSC, member, MP, and governor of Kerala, Gujarat, and
Rajasthan, Dr Sarup Singh lived many professional lives in one
life-time. Bhim S. Dahiya’s 152-page fast-moving biography of Singh
brings to the fore admirably his roles as son, husband, father, teacher,
administrator, politician, statesman, and scholar. The book is a
carefully researched depiction of a man whose humanitarianism and
generosity manifested themselves in every position that he occupied.
Himself a former vice-chancellor of Kurukshetra University, an MLA in
the Haryana Assembly, and now the first incumbent to the newly created
Dr Sarup Singh Chair at the same university, the author’s career bears
a striking resemblance to that of his subject. Interestingly both are
from Rohtak district, and both earned Ph.Ds in English Studies from
abroad; Dr Sarup Singh from the University of London on 18th-century
English drama, and Professor Dahiya from the University of Cincinnatti
on Ernest Hemingway.

Focusing on the
highlights of Dr Sarup Singh’s career, the biography is divided into
19 chapters among which are "A Feel of the Freedom Struggle,"
"A Popular Teacher," "As Vice-Chancellor (of Delhi
University)", "UPSC and Bansi Lal," "As a Member of
Parliament," "Exit from Haryana Politics." Born in the
small village of Sanghi in Rohtak in 1917, Sarup Singh lost his mother
in the first year of his life, leaving him in "the care of an
uneducated father and an ignorant grandmother." Though illiterate,
his father was keen to ensure that his son acquired a good education,
and the boy did not let him down. Completing his schooling from the
village school, he passed the Matriculation examination in the Ist
division in 1934; BA Hons (English) from Ramjas College, Delhi, in 1938,
securing the 2nd position; then stood Ist in MA (English) of Delhi
University in 1940; and finally, after 11 years of college teaching,
qualified for the Ph.D degree from London University—a rare
distinction in that period after India’s independence.

Quoting extensively
from written records of former students as well as his own reminiscences
of Singh during his years as principal of Kirori Mal College, professors
at Kurukshetra University and Delhi University, and vice-chancellor of
Delhi University, the author gives us a fascinating account of the heady
mix of academics and politics that marked the decades from the 1950s to
the 1970s. With the succeeding chapters the tempo quickens as politics
plays an increasing role in Dr Sarup Singh’s activities.

Dahiya’s most amusing
and ironical chapters on Haryana politics reveal his inside knowledge of
the antics of the players in the game as well as his own Falstaffian
perspective of amused detachment while surveying the absurdities and
contortions of aspirants for power, as well as his Johnsonian irony in
describing "the vanity of human wishes" that such aspirations
reflect. One such anecdote deserves to be quoted: "As usual in
politics, each of the groups (Dr Sarup Singh’s and Ch Devi Lal’s)
wanted to corner more tickets than the other. The joke at the time was
that while Dr Sarup Singh would not agree on a candidate unless he had
at least a BA Pass degree, Ch Devi Lal would reject a candidate if he
had an education beyound the High School level." But in the
political tussle, Devi Lal proved too wily a fox for Dr Sarup Singh, the
academic, to contend with, and, as Dahiya notes with wry humour,
"Clearly, the match between Ch Devi Lal and Dr Sarup Singh was
highly uneven. It was like a wrestling match between a plump pehalwan
and a spectacled scholar."

The book’s last
chapters dealing with the evening of Dr Sarup Singh’s life show him to
be as mentally alert as ever though, inevitably, physically less
energetic than before, as well as being disillusioned with the pettiness
of human nature that politics exposed. Finding a refuge in his
"favourite world of books," he, nevertheless, continued to
remain in touch with the political scene, no more as a participant but
simply a spectator: "Whenever Ch Bansi Lal was in Delhi," the
author observes, "he always, without fail, called on Dr Sarup Singh
for a little gossip, besides inquiring about his health and the welfare
of the family. In those quiet days, Dr Sarup Singh’s constant company
were his books. I remember his bedroom in his house in Maharani Bagh
where he loved to study and entertain his close contacts."

Written with painstaking
care, enthusiasm, and admiration, Professor Dahiya’s biography is
lively, informative, and delightfully readable.